After tying the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Carolina Mudcats lost a battle to the Salem Red Sox 4-2 in 12 innings on Saturday night. The loss drops Carolina four games behind Salem in the division race with nine games remaining.

Despite squandering some early scoring chances, the Carolina Mudcats jumped out to a four run lead to back a dominant pitching performance by Nick Pasquale to defeat the Lynchburg Hillcats 4-1 on Friday night to salvage a four game series split.

In this week’s second edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at the impressive pro debut by Clint Frazier out in Arizona, where he is excelling/struggling, and where the numbers can also be misleading. He also provides several comments from the front office on some lesser talked about players at Lake County such as Luis Morel, Jeremy Lucas, Richard Stock, Joe Sever and others, and provides insight into Jose Ramirez’s big league future, Francisco Lindor’s season being over, the breakout year for Erik Gonzalez and much more.

Even though Danny Salazar has come up to the major leagues and gotten results, the organization has not done the best job of developing starting pitching in recent years. There are a few pitchers making waves now, but long-term success will rely on more than one or two arms. Joseph Colon is one of those guys Cleveland needs to develop in order to have more starting depth and he showed what he is capable of Thursday. To read all about Colon's night and everything else you need to know about the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

Joe Colon did not allow a base runner to second over seven scoreless innings and the Carolina Mudcats provided plenty of offense in an 8-2 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats on Thursday night at Five County Stadium.

The ups and downs of a long baseball season can affect even the best players. There was a point when Carolina second baseman Joe Wendle and Lake County right-hander Dylan Baker were red-hot, yet of late, the pair had struggled. That was not the case Wednesday night as both broke out in big ways. To read about their night and everything you need to know about Wednesday in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

SALEM – For the second straight night, the Carolina Mudcats allowed the Salem Red Sox to jump out to a big early lead, but rallied to eventually tie the game before finally losing a heartbreaker 10-9 on Tuesday night. The loss drops Carolina (29-27, 51-75) 2.5 games behind Salem for the final wildcard spot.

In this week’s opening Minor Happenings salvo, Tony takes a look at the excitement that is brewing with Low-A Lake County right-handed pitching prospect Dylan Baker and why he is one of the Indians best pitching prospects. He also provides several comments from Ross Atkins on players at Double-A Akron such as Tyler Holt, Carlos Moncrief, Will Roberts and others, and provides lots of insight into the development of Jesus Aguilar, Luis DeJesus, Caleb Hamrick, Sean Brady, Jorge Martinez and others.

The Carolina Mudcats fell into a huge hole early, and were never able to recover, falling to the Salem Red Sox 9-2 on Monday night. The loss dropped Carolina 29-26 in the second half and fall 1.5 games behind Salem for the final playoff position.

The Carolina Mudcats took game one of a doubleheader against the Salem Red Sox 7-1 on Sunday afternoon before dropping game two 3-1. The doubleheader split keeps the Mudcats a half game out of the wildcard spot in the playoff race behind Salem.

In today’s week ending edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at High-A Carolina outfield prospect Jordan Smith who continues to make incremental progress and has the skills but has a few things he is still working on before he is taken more seriously as a prospect. In addition to that he provides some comments from Ross Atkins on how the organization prioritizes prospects for trades as well as comments on several players at Carolina and Lake County, plus he provides insight into the development of Paolo Espino, Kyle Crockett, Ryan Merritt, Luis Lugo and others.

Is there anything better than seeing a top prospect take his team to victory? Sure, Lake County would not have won 1-0 without a shutout pitching performance, but Dorssys Paulino's solo home run provided all the offense the Captains needed. Paulino has continued to turn things around following his rough start and he sustained that constant progress Thursday night. To read about Paulino and everything else you need to know about the night in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he goes Around The Farm.

After taking an early lead, the Carolina Mudcats allowed the Myrtle Beach Pelicans to come back and take the lead before losing a heartbreaker 5-4 on Thursday night. The loss drops Carolina 2.5 games behind the Pelicans in the division race and allows the Salem Red Sox to climb with half a game for the final playoff spot.

One pitcher who is on the rise as far as relief prospects go in the Cleveland Indians system is High-A Carolina reliever Louis Head. After being cut in college from the Texas Tech baseball team, he has since rebounded to not only get himself drafted and signed by a Major League Baseball team, but become an interesting relief prospect. The IBI's Zachary Francis recently caught up with him and tells his tale...

Considering that Carlos Santana, Yan Gomes, and Lou Marson were all not developed in the organization, it is great to see catchers like Jake Lowery and Alex Lavisky performing like they did Wednesday night. The catching depth looks good in the minors and Lowery and Lavisky are a part of that. To read about what made their performances noteworthy and everything else you need to know about Wednesday night in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

After a day of roster moves, the Carolina Mudcats took an early lead against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans that continued to grow throughout the game and won 7-0. The shutout victory pulls Carolina within a game and a half of the Pelicans in the race for the second half division title.

The Potomac Nationals edged out the Carolina Mudcats to win, 9-8, in the final game of a three-game series at Pfitzner Stadium. Greg Holt (6-0) tossed 1 2/3 innings in relief for the win and Robert Whitenack (0-2) took the loss for with 3 1/3 frames pitched while allowing six hits and seven runs.

In this week’s first edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at the strides that Lake County right-hander Robbie Aviles is making but also looks at the warning signs of possible trouble up ahead with him. He also provides several comments from the front office on High-A Carolina players such as Joe Colon, Tony Wolters, Louis Head, Nick Pasquale, Bryson Myles and others, provides the whereabouts of Adam Plutko and why he is not pitching, and has a detailed infirmary report on just about every injured player in the minors.

The Potomac Nationals shut out the Carolina Mudcats with a 2-0 win at G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium Monday night. Left fielder Bryson Myles’ hitting streak was snapped with an 0-4 showing. His 23-game streak was a franchise record.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!